Musings about food, cooking, wine and related issues -- eating and shopping locally, reading nutrition and ingredient labels, being mindful of food sources -- with digressions into knitting, books, films, music and even the occasional sociopolitical rant.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Stay calm. Breathe deeply. Enlightenment is within your reach.

Today I am spending my lunch hour reading In Buddha’s Kitchen: Cooking, Being Cooked, and Other Adventures in a Meditation Center by Kimberly Snow.

In chapter three, the author describes dealing with a particularly aggravating individual, and the response of one of the Lamas is that she is “Good practice for bardo … very good practice.” Bardo is the state after death and before the next rebirth, and it “is often filled with wrathful deities, terrifying sights, loud noises.” Staying calm and keeping your wits about you while in a bardo state is the path to enlightenment.

One of the tweets I read today was a quote to the effect of “What angers you, controls you.”

It has been a while since I have encountered these sorts of reminders about coping with the trials of daily life. The timing appears to be apt because I feel calmer already. Not so much enlightened, but definitely calmer.